Zipping Through Barriers to Inclusive Learning with Zip Captions
by Dan Mullins
In the diverse world of K-12 education, where students of varying backgrounds and abilities come together to learn, it is difficult to overstate the importance of accessible education. Chris Webb, a math teacher and pilot project coordinator at John Rennie High School, has been on a mission to make classrooms more inclusive for all students, regardless of hearing ability or language proficiency. In collaboration with former Lester B. Pearson School Board employee James Petersen, Webb has co-developed Zip Captions, an live captioning tool which can instantly display spoken words as text.
Zip Captions began when a student of Webb’s who experienced hearing loss made it clear that there was a pressing need for improvements to accessibility in the school’s auditorium, so Webb and Petersen began exploring captioning and assistive listening. Beginning with the creation of Slides Captions, which was a Google Chrome extension that would display full screen live captions, the duo sought to address the needs of their students. As the project evolved, they discovered limitations to their approach, including Google’s updates to Slides and the way the system would present text in large blocks, which they felt could be improved upon. Nonetheless, they received very positive feedback.
Webb’s drive to innovate in the service of the public good led to Dell Canada’s Innovation Accelerator, where he had the chance to invest more time in developing a dedicated captioning tool for use in the classroom. Zip Captions came into being when Petersen volunteered his expertise as a Full Stack Web Developer, and his free time to build the tool. The two built a tool for the classroom use, which offers seamless and customizable captioning. It distinguishes itself by its ability to broadcast captions to personal devices, enhancing the accuracy and discretion of live captioning in various settings, including classrooms, places of worship, and conference venues. The tool supports nine languages and is continuously evolving based on user feedback.
Aside from the obvious and intended applications, the existence of Zip Captions is an argument in favour of community support, hosted as it is on GitHub Pages and partially funded through Patreon. The team’s efforts are being noticed, and their project has gained international usage, as well as having been included in the Microsoft Founders Program.
The need is huge. According to the Zip Captions literature, 18% of adults are deaf or hard of hearing, 4% of adults have ADHD, or 1% have Central Auditory Processing Disorders, all of whom are likely to at least occasionally experience difficulties when faced with speech alone. Add to that language learners, who are shown to benefit from captions, and a large fraction of adults could benefit from the technology.
For parents, students, and educational staff, Zip Captions is a step towards a more inclusive future, in which every student has the opportunity to thrive. As the world becomes more aware of the need to differentiate education to meet the needs of diverse learners, many new, educator-driven technologies like Zip Captions will be needed.
Congratulations to Webb and Petersen for doing their part.
